Frugal Friends Forging Forward Toward February and Further Financial Freedom

[Wolfcub]

New fred

Have cooked a cottage pie for us for tonight and MumBob tomorrow. Also made a chilli for the slow cooker tomorrow , cleaned kitchen and mountain of washing/ wiping up while Dh & Dd2 watched the England match.
Happier enjoy the weekend with Bf, well done on the grocery budget!
Hairy legs R Us Unescorted
Dh & l have forgoed/forgone a Valentines card is that the right verb spelling tense? who knows ? For the first time ever we haven't got a card for each other. We don't mind really it is just a sign of the times .
Madden you will do it , plenty of toast / pasta/ baked potatoes/noodles/ soups stews and porridge will see you through , in the meantine enjoy your lovely food, although all the things l have mentioned are my fave comfort foods
Wolf nothing quite like a scalding hot radiator cwtch especialy if you have a bad back it's heaven
Em love the pretty pink bowl !
Tight lovely cooking
Life well done on all the jobs done! l missed about your new car, just lovely enjoy it !
Amber enjoy your book
Snuggly it's almost an anti climax for the Dc and us , we look forward to half term/holidays and in reality sometimes it can be boring
Sing trending colours atm , l have it on good authority from Dd2 that yellow and grey are THE colours for this year found this too
www.homesandgardens.com/news/paint-trends-206929
Eaten Cottage pie it was really nice the cheese was lovely and crispy
Casualty & Line of Duty ... Ahhh perfect !

I was so wrong about sausage on the masked singer. I had her down for Sheridan smith. Spoiler alert. It wasn’t her.

Ditto em! I didn’t get any of today’s, I agreed with the guesses about the other two but wouldn’t have got them on my own. I got dragon and blob.

Have seen Smith in little shop of horrors maybe 14 years back, she was sooo good 💖

Thanks re colours mrsmad my instinct has been telling me yellow, it needs to be quite a warm yellow IYSWIM, I want a really cosy feeling living room. Floor is kind of grey brown (went with most affordable!) but I want big brightly coloured fluffy rugs etc. Got sooo much to do to sort it and am a bit overwhelmed at the thought of decorating 😂

I did guess Robin. But not the other two.

I know I could Google...... but wtf is The Masked Singer? It sounds like 50 Shades of HMV.

Sing my decorating extends to stripping wallpaper, sanding floors and painting white. I leave the actual decorating to others.

Tight sorry - I didn't say earlier. I remember the pain of portfolio submissions. It is such a personal thing which makes getting or not getting an offer so much harder. I have everything crossed for him.

I thought Beverly Knight Em. Just watched Sheridan Smith's musicals programme on iplayer. Really enjoyed it.

:o unescorted it’s a show that came over last year from the US (also big in Asia I think?!) where celebrities dress up in batshit crazy costumes and hide their identities and sing, but they do little clue videos too. Gradually people get eliminated and when they do they get unmasked. Some are actual singers and others are people you’d never expect.

unescorted it is possibly the most mental show in the world. But it’s great it’s really silly and as sing said completely batshit. The costumes are fantastic and ive been suprised at some of the singers.

We said last night the 2 clever things about the masked singer are that it gets you talking to each other as you discuss who it could be and that it works on 2 levels - adults like trying to guess, kids like the costumes and singing. But yes, it is completely mad!

I was suprised at the big names they’d managed to get too. But I guess covid.

I loved how Nicola off of girls aloud got badger straight off last night when Rita had been guessing for weeks (and knew badger in real life supposedly).

unescorted the free beer sounds great! We haven't seen Masked Singer either.
I wish all the teachers on here a good half term break, your job must be soul destroying at the moment.
I swear quite a lot too. More since lockdown I think!
Yesterday was grocery shop day and then it's dh's 50th in 2 weeks time, so we've started planning a couple of small scale zoom celebrations. We wouldn't have been doing much anyway as the plan was always to have a big party later in the year for both our birthdays and our wedding anniversary. I can't imagine we're going to be able to have that this year either.
Hopefully with the milder weather, gas consumption will b lower this week. It has been lovely to go out for walks this week in dry weather with beautiful sunrise/sunset skies.
Dh made a lovely tea last night, chicken arrabiata with Parmesan dumplings, delish.

Ooh parmesan dumplings! Do you have a recipe for those please?

I agree it was prob due to covid they had bigger names this year - like on strictly Bill Bailey said this was the first year he’d finally had time to do it (which is sad too of course as so much has had to stop 😫)

I found out last night the Ross Noble show we booked for last summer has been moved to February 2022. Actually debated just getting a refund as I don’t like the uncertainty over whether it’ll go ahead then (and babysitters are hard to get, although at least it’s local so we won’t be out super late) but TBH it is something to look forward to and I expect prices will have to rise a lot for this sort of thing if capacity is reduced etc so we may not be able to afford other things. DH has robot wars tickets too but not sure what is happening with those and I wonder if the pit access will be the same (it was a present for DSS’ birthday).

North what a year for celebrations! I'm sure the scaled back plans will be lovely all the same and any big plans are just postponed (51 is the new 50 anyway 😜)

It's a lazy roast dinner day today. I didn't get out of bed until 11am (thanks dh!). We're having roast pork and I'm making braised red cabbage to go with - any good recipes out there?

We're trying to divide and conquer the girls atm. The dts particularly spend so much time together (literally 24/7) and they were started to get a bit eggy with each other earlier so one of them has gone with her older sister up to play in big sister's room (an honour usually forbidden 😅) and the other one is belting out what sounds like some elaborate musical to rival Les Mis! Dh is now hiding out upstairs in the loft room and I'm pottering in the kitchen - bliss whilst it lasts!

I’m doing a roast chicken today. Took Dd to the supermarket to get one and other things on the list. £92 later....although a lot of it was stuff we needed.

Starving now. In dds room trying to coax her for a nap and then I’ll crack on with dinner.

This is my favorite red cabbage recipe
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/braised-red-cabbage-cider-apples

Makes loads though but freezes well

Hello! Hello!

I've been reading all the posts but not had a chance to reply this week.

I set a budget of £150 p/W for grocery shopping and have managed to stick to it, this week I spent £61 in Aldi, which is probably the lowest I've spent since the first lockdown began, £13 in Iceland and £14 at the (essential) market. I've been writing everything down in a budget book that I got from Wilko and I think it's helped loads, as feb is a short month and there is no Council tax or Water rates to pay out this should help too.

It's been freezing but pleasantly sunny here since we had snow early last week, it's really making me look forward to spring and longer warmer days.

Hope everyone is well and dealing with home schooling/working from home without too much stress, hope the teachers amongst us can have a restful break this coming week.

Happy St Valentines day everyone
NSD for me today yay!
Have not watched the Masked singer but we are half way through the second series of LOD , it's so good we couldn't leave it last night until next week and l couldn't remember a thing
You are welcome Sing l know exactly the shade you mean
It is so cold , dark & dismal we have got the lights on ! Honestly l really don't like days like this

£74 on grocery delivery.

DH is doing roast pork for dinner this evening.

Torrential rain here.

We have roast pork for dinner this evening too! Looking forward to it even though it's me cooking!

Anyone know when the next series of LOD is going to air? It's my favourite series of all time and I can't wait!

Camden, in March. I love it too

£30 yesterday on takeaway. Frugalling today by partially cooking the baked potatoes for tonight whilst the oven was on for lunch (before anyone asks I don't have a microwave).

Went for a very cold walk this morning, have read a good chunk of my book, done a load of washing and am watching the rugby

Roast beef and Yorkshires here. Dh doesn't like roast pork so the kids & I are having Porchetta while he is working away next week. Slow roast in the oven so will keep the kitchen warm.

I love LOD too.

I can't believe how fast this weekend has gone.

In March I believe Camden, so not long to wait now. I love it too, v excited about the new series!

I made a huge pot of veg curry last night and we barely scratched the surface of it so we are having the rest for tea. Dh is making naan breads to go with it and I've made some raita.

Slow cooked gammon in cola here. Never done it before, really looking forward to it. If I can muster some energy I'll do some apple and mincemeat sponge puddings for afters.
Frugal win today, we have gained an upright Sebo vacuum cleaner from dparents. We bought a Bosch cordless when our last one packed up a couple of years ago, but it has been useless. Mum has had the Sebo for ages but hasn't used it in a long while as it is too heavy for her. I am in utter wonder at it's suction power!! Better than any other vacuum we've had, even the dc were impressed. Mum has said we are fine to keep it and she has a box of replacement bags too.

Thanks life the cabbage was gorgeous! Stuffed now and having a kitchen disco with the kids - could be our last Sunday altogether in this house 🥲. Should be exchanging tomorrow 🤞🤞